30 years of sobriety

Over on twitter (@StJohnsPriest) I mused for a few days about getting sober.  For posterity's sake I have complied them here.

January 16, 11:00 PM
So by this time 30 years ago the drinking had begun again. The same fellow bartender said the same exact thing that started the binge a week earlier, “have one drink to calm your nerves”. An alcoholic doesn’t have one drink. By the end of the shift I’d had several and then... 1/2
....then I headed out into the night to find more alcohol. I remember heading into my fraternity house for a party and then BLACK OUT. My next conscious thought was 6 hours later lying in the hallway of my apartment house, puddle of vomit, a neighbor trying to wake me. 2/2

1. January 17, 8:40 AM
   AA advises that you shouldn’t forget your last drinking episode. This photo was taken inside my apartment where I came to outside in the hallway 30 years ago this morning. Friends had helped me home in a blackout but couldn’t find my keys on me, so they left me in a heap....
   ...I remember others who lived in there at 3913 Pine trying to rouse me on their way to class or work. Finally, I got up in a fog, and staggered a block away to the landlord office to get the spare key to let myself into my apartment. My life would change that evening
   One day at a time multiplied by 10,957 equals 30 years of #sobriety #sober #recovery #AA
   
   
   January 17, 7:09 PM
   This hour 30 years ago I was at my first AA meeting. 4 of us there for our 1st mtg - 2 of us stayed sober the first 3 years b4 I moved & we lost touch. The other 2 bounced in & out the first 6 months - one died in a workplace accident drunk, other one lost track after 3rd relapse
   
   
   January 17, 10 PM
   After my first AA meeting 30 years ago tonight we walked a block up to The Roost for pizza (slice of whole wheat with pepperoni). I remember thinking that these folks were not my cliche, but I would find out these folks “got me” in ways my drinking friends did not.
   
   
   january 17 11:18 PM - 6 tweet series
   As I get ready to go to bed and thank God for another day of sobriety and pray in gratitude for my dad and Mike P. who 12 stepped me a few weeks before my first #AA meeting. When I came to after that last binge it dawned on me that I drank like my dad - & he is in #recovery
   I also thank God for Greg B. my first #aa sponsor. He was the first guy I met when I showed up way too early for my@first meeting. “You look like you are in the right place” he said. He was right. He helped me with the steps and how to enjoy #sobriety
   I am also grateful for David L., who was also at his first #aa meeting that same night as I was. He became a good friend, moved into my apartment building, and helped me figure out how to live this new life as we both drove our shared sponsor crazy.
   And I am grateful for all the fellow recovering drunks who shared their experience, strength, and hope in Phila, East Goshen (PA), Delafield and Milwaukee WI, Bryn Mawr, PA, Charleroi PA, and here in Metro Detroit...and countless places I have gotten to a meeting on vacation.
   I pray tonight for those still suffering alcoholics who never got sober, despite the offer of hope through our High Power and the #12staps of #aa, and died in their addiction. I’ve buried too many, seen drunks and their families suffer from this disease.
   And I pray for those still suffering from the addiction to alcohol. There is help and hope! Call the #AA hotline or google “AA near me”. We stay sober by God’s Grace, working the #12steps, helping other alcoholics, and not taking the first drink - one day at a time.
   
   
   January 18 - 8:21 AM
   Day 10,958 now underway. It’s another good day to be sober.